Second Edition British Columbia Regional winner Justin Ford |
Justin's Commentary: What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time? Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again? What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? |
My Commentary: If you're not expecting any event-heavy opponents, Spiteful Strategy is going to largely be dead weight, just getting in the way of drawing what you want. What I find more surprising is not using Mobilization Points in its absence. I suppose that, when you don't draw it early, its impact can be very minimal, to the point of being frustrating that you haven't spent that counter drawing the more powerful Our Death or Explicit Orders or even just that guy with the skill you needed. On the other hand, if you high-roll it and get multiple copies early on, you can get a blazing start... if you filled your deck with the generally overcosted unique Jem'Hadar. Justin hasn't, he's only got six of them, exchanging variance for reliability. I'm surprised by the absence of Know Thy Enemy as well, that has been a staple of Dominion decks I've looked at recently. I will say though that, when the Dominion decks pick up a loss, I've seen it happen when paired against Klingon decks - perhaps overreliance on Know Thy Enemy is a factor there. I personally would still run a copy or two, but I'd imagine it would depend on what I expected to face. The moral of the story is that I'm always happy to see that a deck, like the Dominion Midrange Solver, is still unstable. That's easiest for a control deck (they tend to have the most room for tech cards), and hardest for speed solver (there's little room in those decks to variance), but it's easy to imagine that of the powerful tools that the Dominion has available, we'd see a pretty stable group showing up in the winning decks. I'm glad that's not the case. |
Second Edition Dessau Regional winner Johannes Mette |
Johannes' Commentary: What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? Das Deck ist ein stabiler Solver, der einfach zu Spielen ist und der sich vielen Situationen anpassen kann. |
My Commentary: Johannes mentions that skill-tracking piles are a potential weakness for this deck, while I mentioned it as a strength for Sascha's. I'd emphasize the "potential" part there, since decks with Bridge Officer's Test, The Promise, and Riker are still going to be a bit above the curve versus skill walls, but Sascha's deck definitely went after those decks harder with a full three copies of the Test. But what Johannes' deck lacks in skill gain is more than made up for with its anti-attrition tools. He's packing multiples of Gowron, more Treachery personnel to dump for him, and his choice of Worfs is also more anti-attrition. Worf, Son of Mogh is great for speed (though he helps the opponent's speed too), but The Strongest Heart with a suite of expendable events just chews through those stopping dilemmas. I've always felt that Klingons get more out of stop prevention than anyone else, since each one of their personnel (with their sky-high attributes) does that much more to threaten a solve. Johannes also drops Alpha 5 Approach (Transport Crash Survivor) in favor of Cardassia IV (Rescue Prisoners). Sascha's mission selection set him up for solving 115 points worth of missions with a few point-spending events - if his draws line up, that can lead to some bigger bursts. Johannes' deck goes for 105 points, but Rescue Prisoners is a much easier mission with situational anti-capture text. I've learned too that Rescue Prisoners' 1 span should not be underestimated, since being able to fly home from space and back out to Rescue with an 8-range ship can save you a turn or two over the game. Take into account the 3 copies of Skeleton Crew that Johannes runs, and I bet he doesn't miss Transporting those Crash Survivors. |
Second Edition Illinois Regional winner Casey Wickum |
Casey's Commentary: I was teetering around with Voyager before hand and strongly considered them as well. Steve's last minute preregistration is probably what tipped the scales in favor of TOS, as I felt that they offered a better shot against an non-meta player than Voyager would have and his events would have given me some fits if I went with Voyager. For a short while I was going to bring some Cardassians that I have slowly been working on out to play, but I have zero experience playing them in any level of event, so I smartly decided that it would be best to save them for another time. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? I wasn't too worried about battlers or capture as they really don't show up here, as in a pinch Spock could sacrifice himself to save the ship, and Number One can initiate Prison Breaks. Plus, if they spend too long setting up their interaction they could quickly find them selves down a couple of missions before they get out. Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time? Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again? I included Provoke Interstellar Incident to help out with TNG+DS9 power and other other odd occurrences that could pop up in Dual HQ. My personnel can naturally solve it as well even though it is off attribute and skills so I really didn't have to worry about it being fully dead weight. Having the extra turn against Al really did help and put me well ahead. I was toying with Inspiring Leader for the free Range +2 in some testing games. I found the lack of range to not be able to go from Mission - HQ - Missions to be a real pain and I have seen several Outclassed pop up as well recently and it nullified one I believe in the match vs Maggie. It doesn't have a particular downside as it is just one cost and in conjunction with the TOS draw I don't see much reason to nix it. Overall I think all of my cards saw play and most pulled their own so I don't think I would remove any, a second copy of Sisko might be a nice addition since his interrupt nuke seems to be a target of things like Secret ID a bit too often. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? I'll always throw a shout out to the Infinite Diversity, Rapid Progress dilemmas though, and, of course Counterinsurgency when I've got the fodder for it. I rely on them a bit too much in every game I play. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? |
My Commentary: Original Series Federation decks are one of the best decks to back up that type of dilemma. TOS Sisko is arguably the best interrupt prevention in the game, since he is both reusable and tough to counter. Since most skill gain is interrupt-based, Sisko can carry a lot of the weight on his own. But some games he'll only need to buy you time until Coordinated Counterattack can hit the table (he can also help make sure it stays on the table too). Once that beast arrives, even the Garaks and Siliks will be shut down, and your skill tracking can continue unimpeded. This ability to boost the effectiveness of skill walls with relatively little investment is why you often see TOS as the affiliation of choice for backing up other skill-intensive piles, like damage-based or 8472 piles. Whether you're trying to make prefix codes stick, or get a bunch of dilemmas in the opposing core that don't actually do anything to stop the active team, it is very valuable to be able to buy that stop with something like "Rapid Progress". If Casey were looking to branch out and try a new, yet familiar TOS build, I might recommend 8472 to him. Interestingly, Casey's choice to make this an integrity-based TOS build using Ba'ku Planet means that his deck is also going to have a tough time against a skill-wall pile. Not only are treachery personnel the kind of low-integrity types you don't want when solving integrity missions, Ba'ku Planet actively encourages excluding them in exchange for more points. Just be careful that you have a way to block Driven, or you might accidentally give Casey a free mission. |
Second Edition London Regional winner Nicholas Yankovec |
Nick's Commentary: So the choices were either Borg Assimilation, Khan, Romulan, Starfleet, or Dominion Jem'Hadar. Seeing as I'd played 2 of those in the past 6 months, Doug was playing Romulan, and I (mistakenly) thought Danny would play Starfleet, leaving me with my favourite, Dominion. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? Beyond that, and the feeling Danny would go back to the Starfleet well again, I had no idea what Will would end up playing. I knew once my deck was set-up, it could pretty much speed through most of the dilemmas this group typically plays, so I was hoping not to encounter any super fast speed decks. I also was hoping I wouldn't run into many new dilemmas from the last few sets, as I would be woefully unprepared for them. As I discovered in my last game of the day! Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time? Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again? I wouldn't include Vorta Discipline in this deck again, for the lack of Treachery Vorta. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? A close second is the Subek'Somek - once I have Crom, Martok, and Inglatu, and quite often Talak'Talan, that's 3 or 4 Diplomacy and using the ship's game text allows me to use Strength instead of Integrity, so Gomtuu isn't a huge threat. Likewise, I got past all the WNOHGB that were thrown at me, using Strength instead of Cunning. Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? |
My Commentary: The more prevalent heavy-consume kill piles are ones where you often lose most of your team but bury the mission, rebuild, then take the mission more easily on the second attempt. This pile is not one of those piles. There's Hard of Heart/Ardent Predator for 2-cost double kills, and Cornered killing 2 for 3 cost (and requiring skills while they're at it) - that would even be a good ratio if we were looking at stops per cost! A Taste of Armageddon and Simulated Prey go up to 4 cost for two kills (a bit more like the usual kill to cost ratio), but the kills are guaranteed to happen and the first kill is guaranteed to be someone with a mission skill. With those kinds of ratios, that places this pile somewhere in between a consume-kill pile and a standard attrition pile. You'll get more attempt stops per mission than a consume-kill pile, but your opponent won't have to rebuild as much (a higher mission attempt per game count). On the other hand, you'll stop fewer attempts per mission than a standard attrition pile, but your opponent won't be able to put up as many attempts per game. What makes this pile really shine in my eyes is the sprinkling of attrition dilemmas (like An Issue of Trust) and non-skill walls (like Distress Call and Know Thy Enemy). Those dilemmas will help increase the number of attempts your opponent needs in order to solve their missions, while you're still draining the number of personnel they have in play with your other dilemmas. I like it. |
First Edition Illinois Regional winner Corbin Johnson |
Corbin's Commentary: I looked for a deck that looked fun and found Matt Zinno's in last week's regionals article. The explanation both in the article and in the deck's strategy made it look fun and easy to learn. I tweaked the deck to fix the tactics issue. What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time? I am a Fed/Baj/BRC TE junkie though and am very well versed in how the mirror quadrant works in general. Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again? Historic coming together is some nice tech. I can understand some of the controversy. I found the synergy of this with Disgraceful Assault very compelling. The combo hit in every game (sometimes twice). The old school Q's Tent is a nice touch allowing small red shirting away teams. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? |
My Commentary: In any event, it looks like Corbin took the tactic changing advice to heart, because there are only 2 of 10 tactics that don't kill. I didn't pay much attention to Matt's Isolytic Burst, but it's great for a Battle Bridge pile that you only plan to use with your dilemmas. Weapons and Shields are nice, but Range is the king of solving. In the more solitaire-type games, it is possible for non-Range ship stats to never matter, but Range will always count. Range reductions remind me of a handy chart from the classic Wesley Crusher COTD site, calculating the probability of being able to move across X number of mission cards based on a ship's range and the average span of missions in the game. Sure, the mission pool is a wee bit larger these days, but I doubt the numbers have changed that much: 2 cards 3 cards 4 cards Range 03 00.55 00.00 00.00 Range 04 04.42 00.01 00.00 Range 05 19.36 00.17 00.00 Range 06 49.38 01.26 00.00 Range 07 78.33 05.97 00.05 Range 08 94.39 19.04 00.38 Range 09 99.28 42.10 01.86 Range 10 100.00 67.80 06.73 Range 11 100.00 86.80 18.11 Range 12 100.00 96.22 37.07 Range 13 100.00 99.32 59.64 Most good ships start at range 8... and look at the probability drop off when going from 6 range (the max for most tactics is -2) to 5 range (from Isolytic burst). That's just mean. Now, I get not using it as the primary tactic in the pile, the chance of a three tactic kill from Breen Disruptor Burst is just too juicy, and you may find that nice attack of opportunity with your huge Regency 1, but Isolytic Burst is nice to have somewhere in the side deck. |
First Edition British Columbia Regional AND Second First Edition Online Regional winner Michael Van Breemen |
Michael's Commentary: What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face? After the fact, I didn't want to face Computer Crashes until the end of the game. Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time? Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again? If I could fit it in - a Quark's Isolinear Rods would be a good idea if that kind of deck of Justin's comes around again. What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck? Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck? |
My Commentary: It doesn't. It's just there to activate the Terran Empire achievement in an all-Alpha Quadrant deck. That explained why the Mission IIs were listed upside down in his decklist - so he didn't have any non-TE outposts in the deck (sort of), thus voiding the achievement. Doing so made me very confused about where those mission specialists were supposed to go, until I finally actually looked at the individual mission images. Anyways, quirky achievement strategies are not all this deck has going for it. I've written before about the solving power of the TOS Bridge Crew; the solving power of the TOS Mirror Bridge Crew is also pretty great. Being able to run the two crews together, they are greater than the sum of their parts. Those classic equipment downloads are more powerful when you can share their effects with all your people. The real icing here is that Michael gets to have his cake and eat it too; not only can he get all these powerful personnel working together, he can get them all to report to the same location. Needing to hop between quadrants to join these teams together used to be prohibitively time-consuming, but not anymore. Also, extra congratulations are in order for Michael for winning with this deck in two simultaneous tournaments, one online and one in real life. I've had a deck show up multiple times in the same regional season, but this is the first time I've had it win twice in one week when played by the same person each time. Congratulations! |
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